Recycled Building Materials: How Recycled Content Is Declared and Documented

What "recycled" means in this guide

In this guide, a recycled building material is a product whose profile describes its main input as recovered material: waste plastic and PET bottle flakes, glass cullet and post-industrial glass scrap, remelted aluminium scrap, and fibre from used garments or garment off-cuts and, in one product, PET bottles.^[1][2][3][4] This is our editorial scope, not a standard, a certification or a performance claim.

The profiles use pre-consumer for production scrap and post-consumer for material recovered after use, but the documents do not apply the terms evenly: Smile Plastics states a mix without a split, and the Métisse documents use neither term.^[1][4] BSI lists BS EN ISO 14021:2026 (self-declared environmental claims) and BS EN 15343:2007 (traceability and recycled content of recycled plastics) as current; the profiles read only the catalogue entries, so this page does not say what either requires.^[1][3]

Recycled building materials at a glance

The tables repeat what each profile states, with its units, standards and test conditions; nothing is converted, averaged or ranked. Table (a) has one row per material. Table (b) lists each recycled-content statement and the document behind it; EPD figures with different declared units, programmes or PCR versions are not comparable.

(a) The four materials

Fire classes are Euroclass designations as printed unless the cell says otherwise; not every document names EN 13501-1 or a classification report (the Smile data sheet and the ACERMI registry pages do not). The columns are not like-for-like: the thermal values are declared, typical or derived on different bases, and the products are different forms.

(b) Recycled-content statements and the document behind them

Percentages here have different bases: a share of the whole product, of the glass component, of the metal input, or a minimum cotton content that is not a recycled-content figure. Where an EPD gives GWP-fossil and GWP-biogenic separately, the profiles do not net them.

How to read a recycled-content claim

Three kinds of document

The plastic panels profile describes three levels of evidence: the manufacturer's own statement; a content declaration inside a third-party verified EPD; and a certificate under a recycled-content scheme. It opened no certificate of the third kind (Times lists the Global Recycled Standard among its company certifications), and the aluminium profile opened no ASI certificate; ASI's standard treats recycled content, with its method for pre-consumer and post-consumer scrap, as optional data that is not assessed for certification.^[1][3] In our reading, the glass and textile profiles show the first two kinds.^[2][4]

What an EPD does and does not tell you

A recycled percentage is not a carbon figure: Hydro Nenzing prints 81 % post-consumer and 2.00 kg CO₂e per kg, Hydro Iberia 31.8 % and 5.60 (or 2.99 under its second approach), and Profal more than 99.5 % and 1.14, and the documents do not attribute the differences between companies. How scrap is counted matters: Nenzing's content table assigns 0 kg CO₂e per tonne to post-consumer material and 607 to pre-consumer scrap, and Iberia prints two results for two approaches to pre-consumer scrap.^[3] In the plastic EPDs declared per square metre, mass runs from 1.62 to 24.42 kg per m² (Smile's declare a whole sheet), Smile's life cycle starts after the plastic has passed end-of-waste, and Times allocates no impact to recycled PET.^[1] The glass profile puts it in one line: recycled content going in is documented, recyclability coming out is not.^[2]

How to choose between recycled building materials

This section sets out the conditions and trade-offs each profile states. It ranks nothing and does not choose between manufacturers.

By application

Acoustic, wall and ceiling panels. In the plastic profile, Texfel's EPD states up to αw 0.90 and class A (EN ISO 11654, EN ISO 354 test), Woven Image's EPD lists wall panels or tiles, dividers and ceiling baffles, and Times's states a noise reduction coefficient of 0.26 to 1 without a mounting condition in the passage read. Absorption depends on thickness and air gap (Woven Image's 7 mm sheet: NRC 0.25, 0.45 and 0.70 with no, 20 mm and 50 mm gap), so the profile treats a figure without its mounting as not a specification; Woven Image's sheet also asks to avoid excessive water.^[1]

Surfaces, worktops and joinery. Smile's HPD, which is self-prepared, describes its sheets as suited to furniture, fit-outs, washrooms and wall cladding, and Smile says HDPE is generally difficult to glue.^[1] IceStone and Vetrazzo list countertops and other work surfaces, Compac's EPD scenario is 95 % countertops, and the mosaic EPDs describe walls, wellness areas and pools, with no slip or frost data read; the glass profile's deciding question is the construction: cement-bound, resin-bound or fired mosaic.^[2]

Facade and window systems. The Profal, Kawneer, Hydro Iberia and ALsistem EPDs name windows, doors or curtain walls as applications, which the profile treats as manufacturers' statements of intended use. Its own suggestion, not a document's, is to ask in a tender for the post-consumer and pre-consumer share, the programme and PCR version, the modules, the declared unit and, where an EPD prints two results, the approach each follows.^[3] The Pretty Plastic PVC facade tile EPD gives a fire class and mounting rules but no UV or weathering test.^[1]

Insulation. The textile profile separates batts and panels, loose-fill, a dense felt for impact sound and one recycled PET batt, with thermal values on different bases; the documents keep US and European approvals separate (UltraTouch under ICC-ES; Métisse, Pavatextil P, COTON-FRP and IsoFelt under ACERMI certificates or ETAs; the profile found no approval document for SupaSoft).^[4] For fibre insulations from other raw materials, the textile profile points to the sheep wool, cellulose, wood fibre and flax insulation profiles, which our bio-based guide also covers.^[4]

By constraint

• Fire class. The profiles tie classes to polymer, product and test set-up: plastic sheet C-s1, d0 or C-s2, d0 (PET, see below), E (HIPS), felt B-s2, d0, PVC tile B-s3, d0; glass slabs ASTM E-84 Class 1(A) (IceStone) or A2fl-s1 (Compac), none stated for mosaics; aluminium listed A1 and A1FL without testing under Decision 96/603/EC, with nothing on painted profiles beyond its conditions; textile insulation E, D-s2,d0, B-s2,d0, none determined, or ASTM E84 indices.^[1][2][3][4] The plastic and textile profiles both say to use the classification report for the exact build-up.^[1][4]
• Moisture and binder. Glass slabs differ by binder: IceStone says its slabs are "very dense, but still porous" and need sealing, with annual resealing for a typical installation; Vetrazzo's 2017 care guide recommends yearly resealing and waxing every six months; Compac says not to apply sealant, which it says may result in loss of the warranty, and not to place Obsidiana outdoors.^[2] Smile calls its sheets waterproof (fungal growth 0 %, ASTM G21-15) while a Woven Image sheet cautions on its felt, and the two European textile assessments exclude wetting.^[1][4] Binders named elsewhere include 15 % polyester in Métisse RT and 25 % polypropylene in IsoFelt, and the SupaSoft EPD says "no chemicals additives or binders" while naming a PET bi-component binder.^[4]
• Exterior use. Smile does not recommend HIPS outdoors because of UV, while its PET EPD mentions interior and exterior applications; the profile read no weathering test for any plastic product.^[1]
• Corrosion and coastal exposure, as the aluminium profile states it. Hydro's alloy datasheet grades corrosion resistance 5 for 6060 and 6063 and 4 for 6005, 6005A and 6082. QUALICOAT's 2023 specification defines a SEASIDE endorsement with an enhanced pretreatment (at least 2.0 g/m² of aluminium etched, against at least 1.0 g/m² for standard); the text read does not say for which sites, so linking it to coastal projects is a reading of its name. The profile opened no document comparing corrosion or coating performance of recycled-content and primary profiles.^[3]
• Documentation available. The profiles found third-party verified EPDs for the six plastic panel products named in table (b) (none for Smile's HDPE sheet), Compac, the two mosaics, the aluminium products named above and SupaSoft, plus a verified 2015 Métisse RT declaration that is no longer current; they found none for Vetrazzo, IceStone, UltraTouch, COTON-FRP, IsoFelt or Pavatextil P.^[1][2][3][4]

What cuts across the four profiles

Documents that disagree

Each item is a conflict inside one profile's documents. The profiles show both sides and decide none, and neither do we.

• PET sheet fire class (Smile). The data sheet and brochure print C-s1, d0; the only test report opened, BTTG of 3 October 2022 on a PETG sheet of unstated thickness, says "a possible Class C, s1, d0 but a definite Class C, s2, d0". The profile cannot tell whether a later report exists.^[1]
• IceStone ASR and freeze-thaw. The December 2023 product data and the 2025 fabrication guidelines print ASR (ASTM C-1260) as "0.49% 300 cycles" and freeze-thaw (ASTM C-666) as 0.05 %; the December 2023 guide specification prints ASR as 0.05 percent expansion and freeze-thaw as 0.49 percent over 300 cycles. The profile uses neither value.^[2]
• Hydro PCR versions. The Nenzing PDF prints PCR 2019:14 version 1.3.3 and the Iberia PDF 1.2.5, while the registry lists 1.3.4 for both. Separately, Iberia's EPD prints two A1–A3 results, 5.60 ("Hydro approach") and 2.99 ("additional approach"), for two treatments of pre-consumer scrap. The same printed-against-registry gap appears for Texfel, Compac and SupaSoft.^[3][1][2][4]
• Tecnoal and ALsistem recycled shares. Tecnoal prints 13.2 % post-consumer in its content table but, in module D, says no post-consumer recycled input is used. ALsistem prints 2.36 % against the aluminium of its worst-case product and elsewhere 75.8 % to 99.6 %, without saying how the figures relate.^[3]
• Métisse fire class. E in the 2020 RT and Flocon sheets and, for the product alone, in the 2014 M+ sheet; "B/S1/d0" in final conditions of use in that sheet; D-s2,d0 in the ACERMI registry for the RT, PRT d25 and PRT d30 certificates (checked 12 October 2026). No document names the report behind each class.^[4]
• UltraTouch recycled content. "Post-industrial recycled denim and cotton fibers" in ESR-1134, "Crafted from 80% recycled denim and cotton fibers" on Henry's web page, "a minimum of 80% cotton" in Henry's 2025 data sheet.^[4]

Certificates and validity dates

Statuses are as each profile reports them on 12 October 2026; confirm them on the registry before specifying.

• Compac's Cradle to Cradle Certified Full Scope Silver certificate 6516 (version 3.1, "Obsidiana & Terrazzo surfaces") is valid until 7 November 2026, less than a month after this page's date, so it lapses soon unless renewed; the registry attests only to the validity and level of the certification.^[2]
• IceStone's website certificates expired on 18 July 2023 and a registry search found no IceStone listing, although its December 2023 product data still calls its surfaces certified; the printed expiry of its HPD, 4 August 2026, has passed.^[2]
• The SupaSoft EPD S-P-04469 shows "Valid" with validity to 31 October 2026 on the registry and in the PDF, and 21 October 2026 on the ASBP listing: either way it lapses within weeks of this page's date. The 2015 Métisse FDES is no longer current; INIES lists three newer Métisse declarations that the profile could not open.^[4]
• The registry pages opened for the Woven Image, Times, Texfel, Compac, mosaic and five aluminium EPDs show them as valid (for Woven Image, the EPD Australasia page gives validity to 20 March 2030). The profiles could not check the EPD Hub entries for Smile, the NIBE entry for Pretty Plastic or UL SPOT for Kawneer and the Aluminum Association.^[1][2][3]

End-of-life claims

The profiles keep "recyclable" as a statement about the material and show what the EPDs model. Smile models 37 % recycling, 44 % incineration with energy recovery and 19 % landfill at UK rates after 4.8 % of production is returned; Woven Image assumes 100 % landfill outside Europe, Texfel landfill and Times 90 % recycling in India.^[1] The Compac and mosaic EPDs model 100 % landfill, and no take-back or recycling statement was found for any glass product.^[2] Hydro's page and the Aluminum Association's EPD call aluminium infinitely recyclable, while the EPDs model less than full recovery, from 85 % (Profal) to 95 %, with Nenzing at 96 % collected and 95 % of that recycled: scenario assumptions, not measured rates.^[3] The 2015 Métisse FDES models landfill and the SupaSoft EPD incineration with energy recovery for module D; no take-back scheme document was found.^[4]

Declared units, programmes and PCRs

The declared units across the profiles are one square metre (of different masses, and for SupaSoft at a stated thermal resistance), a whole sheet, one kilogram of profile, one metric ton and 1,000 kg of stone.^[1][2][3][4] The International EPD System text printed in several of these EPDs says EPDs from different programmes may not be comparable and asks for the same PCR (in newer texts, the same first-digit version) and identical declared units; the profiles apply that wording and find their rows not comparable.^[1][2][3]

The four profiles

• Recycled plastic panels: Pressed sheets, needle-punched PET felt and recycled PVC facade tiles, with fire classes, thermal movement and six EPDs.^[1]
• Recycled glass surfaces: Cement-bound and resin-bound slabs and fired mosaics, and how binder changes care, outdoor limits and test standards.^[2]
• Recycled aluminium: Building extrusions, sheet and facade systems, with how scrap is counted and what the EPDs print.^[3]
• Recycled textile insulation: Cotton, denim and polyester batts, loose-fill and dense felts, with declared thermal values, fire classes and moisture limits.^[4]

Related. The glass profile points to low carbon concrete and geopolymer concrete for cement as a binder in other contexts, and the plastic panels profile points to cork wall tiles and linoleum for bio-based wall finishes; the textile profile points to the fibre insulation profiles that our bio-based guide covers. They are not compared here.^[2][1][4]

Frequently asked questions about recycled building materials

About these data

Every figure on this page comes from the four linked profiles, each of which lists the primary sources behind its numbers. This guide adds no measurements and no sources of its own; counts and readings marked as ours are ours. Registry statuses and validity dates are as each profile reports them on 12 October 2026: confirm them on the registry before specifying.